Thursday, June 25, 2015

Consumers willing to pay for sustainably produced palm oil

Palm oil is in a wide variety of products, from food to cosmetics and has also been used as biofuel in the recent years. Industry's need for more palm plantations contends with habitat for many endangered species, including tigers, elephants, and rhinos. Researchers evaluated the finances involved in the cost of a major palm plantation devoting land to conservation efforts and the amount of mark-up that consumers are willing to pay for "conservation-grade" palm oil. Their experiments showed that consumers are willing to pay 15 to 56 percent more, which could induce companies to practice sustainability where government enforcement has failed.